Oregon’s Umpqua Bank is bringing a unique style of banking into the Bay Area, with plans to open a dozen branches in San Francisco.

The push will begin with a prominent flagship branch opening in the city’s financial district by year-end. CEO Ray Davis says a smaller branch will open in Mission Bay and several other San Francisco neighborhoods are under consideration. Umpqua officials are keeping mum on location details, given the intense competition for suitable sites in San Francisco and that some leases have yet to be signed.

Umpqua’s Bay Area expansion includes establishing a commercial lending office in downtown San Jose to target midsized companies. The move is expected to eventually lead to six to eight retail branches in the South Bay.

Davis is confident the bank’s quirky nature will fit well with Bay Area sensibilities.

How quirky does it get?

The $12 billion bank’s branches offer free cappuccinos and sitting areas that are available to everyone, customers and non-customers — or as Davis might call them, prospective customers — alike. Each Umpqua branch, which are often described as a combination bank, Internet cafe and community center, includes a telephone that dials directly into Davis’ office. He says he gets about one call a week, sometimes from a customer complaining about a fee. But more often than not, it’s someone just wanting to confirm whether the call actually goes to his desk in Portland, Ore., where the bank's parent is based.

Davis also sends frontline employees to Ritz-Carlton for customer-service training in an effort to further distinguish itself from rivals.

“The big guys can outgun us,” Davis said. “We need a value proposition that prompts people to bank with us. It can’t be about rates.”

Umpqua, whose companywide voicemails thank callers for calling the “world’s greatest bank,” plans to build about a dozen branches in San Francisco. For all its quirks, Umpqua Bank is a strong financial institution, with a total risk-based capital ratio of 15.33 percent, placing it well above the regulatory threshold of 10 percent to be considered “well capitalized.”

“Umpqua is a well managed institution that has kept its sights on California for many years,” said Michael Natzic, senior vice president of Stone & Youngberg’s community bank group. “I expect their expansion into the Bay Area will get plenty of attention.”

The bank’s financial strength is no accident.

“There’s nothing funny or quirky about our loan underwriting,” said Dave Zitterow, a commercial lender who is helping to oversee Umpqua’s Bay Area expansion from the commercial lending office in Walnut Creek.

One might wonder whether there’s room in San Francisco for another bank, given the ubiquitous branches of Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Chase. Umpqua has long competed against the Bay Area’s big banks in Oregon, where it enjoys the hometown advantage.

“In San Francisco, it will be harder to have the same distribution and market presence it has in Oregon,” said Joe Morford, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets in San Francisco. “But Umpqua is known for being very innovative, and the Bay Area is a market that’s very receptive to that.”

Umpqua initially came into San Francisco with commercial banking in February 2010. That office is now in the bank’s top three for that line of business. Zitterow points to that success as a sign others in the region will embrace Umpqua even if it’s the first time they’ve ever heard of the bank with the unusual name. (It’s named after Oregon’s Umpqua River.)

Zitterow joined Umpqua last month as part of an exodus of talent from Richmond-based Mechanics Bank, where he was a senior vice president and head of commercial banking. Brad Herzog, Joseph Miner and Debra Utz also joined Umpqua’s Walnut Creek commercial lending team, all coming over from Mechanics Bank.

“They will be a tremendous resource as we continue to expand Umpqua’s presence,” said Cort O’Haver, Umpqua’s executive vice president of commercial banking. He came to the Oregon bank from Mechanics Bank in March 2010.

When Davis is asked about his decision to embrace such an unusual culture in the staid banking industry, he responds, “Why does banking have to be dull?”

Correction/Clarification

An earlier version of this story misstated where Umpqua Bank's parent, Umpqua Holdings, is based.